Business Presentation Teaching as A Way of Developing Communicative Competence
Svetlana A. Burikova1
Elizaveta Grishechko2
Natalia Pronina3
Natalia Yeranova4
1,2,4 RUDN University, Moscow 3 RANEPA, Moscow
ARTICLE INFORMATION
Original Research Paper Received May. 2019 Accepted June. 2019 Keywords: Communications, business presentation, communicative competence, teaching, skills
ABSTRACT
Business communications are now spreading globally, involving new cultural agents, economies, countries. Future professionals are supposed to be able to effectively communicate with their business partners, achieving their goals by means of communicative impact on their business partners. Thus, English teachers should develop the competence of business communication of students.
The articles deals with the particular form of communication – presentation - as a special form of information organization designed for specific public. Informative presentations aim at introducing new items, bringing awareness about issues, instructing. Persuasive speeches are given to influence audience`s opinion about certain topic, phenomena by using different techniques. Depending on the speaker`s experience, context of presentation, different delivery styles may be used, defining whether a speech is prepared in advance or not, and if it is the case, to what extent it is done.
The study conducted, enabled us to effectively create the methods of teaching business presentation. We have considered the ways and the means of business presentations teaching in classes with the bachelors and masters at RUDN University. Using the methods of pedagogical modeling we have considered the process of developing communicative competence when training business presentations. Students, initially, having lack of business presentations experience, have improved their competence significantly. In the article, we considerred the practical tasks and exercises which are aimed at achieving the major goal - in particular - developing communicative competence by means of business presentation teaching.
Introduction
Cultural aspect, psychological features, interlocutors` intentions and ethical norms define the shape, style and content of a business message. However, regardless topic and context of interaction, communication suggests collaboration and attempt to reach agreement and mutual understanding.
In the article, we have considered the steps taken to prepare a speech. Moreover, we have provided examples of the exercises to practice the communicative competence by means of business presentation delivering. We also studied the main types of presentation as well as the factors impacting this process in order to justify subsequent choice of certain strategies and linguistic means by a speaker to be effective in business communication.
Modern Journal of Language Teaching Methods (MJLTM) ISSN: 2251-6204
www.mjltm.org
Presentation is a public demonstration or introduction of something which is of interest for a particular number of recipients. The Oxford dictionary provides a little more specific definition: “A speech or talk in which a new product, idea, piece of work is shown and explained to an audience”. The business presentation as a form of professional activity emerged and started developing in 1960-1970`s. Such processes were due to the fast economy growth and businesses proliferation in the USA and Western Europe. At present, business presentation is an important aspect of most companies` activity when it comes to the publicity, public relations, product launch and at least to an effective business communication.
Literature review
The theoretical basis of the research makes the works of various linguists and culture scientists
J.Austin, T. Van Dijk, J. Searle, J.Thomas, N.Kirillova, N. Arutjunova, Faerch and Kasper, Canal and Swain, Littlemore, Y. Fedorov, G. Pavlovskaya, S. Beebe, Hofstede etc.
The research is conducted on the materials of tutorials for business English. For analyzing the materials the following methods are used: contextual analysis, conversation analysis, paradigmatic analysis, rhetorical criticism and pedagogical modeling.
Research Questions. The intensification and speeding of integrity processes around the world is a key feature of the information era. Due to the greatest ever technological and social achievements and modifications there are far more communication opportunities that humanity have seen so far.
Enjoying the benefits of the global market and freedom of information, businesses create promising links on the national and international scale building the interaction with the use of communication. Business presentation is one of communication forms gaining popularity nowadays, since it is an effective tool of conveying the message to different interlocutors, and, consequently, achieving numerous professional goals.
Thus, the relevance of the research is caused by the permanently increasing role of communication for the development of businesses, which, in their turn, stimulate the economic growth and prosperity. Presentations delivered in business context are equally important for internal and external functioning of any enterprise, whether it is a national or international company. Therefore, the content of a message which a presentation is made for, and methods of conveying it are a matter of great interest. The objective of the research is to reveal the ways of business presentation teaching to develop communicative competence. The objective implies the following tasks to complete:
- to consider the notion of communication strategy and communication tactics proposed by different researches; subsequently study the classification of strategies;
- to review the types and typical features of business presentation along with its delivery methods; - to consider the stages of process preparation and criteria for them;
- to research into the strategies corresponding to each of the presentation type and reveal how they impact the audience;
-to consider tutorials and exercises aimed at practicing the skills of business communication.
According to the purposes of presentation and the context (audience, place, time etc), its speech can be of certain specification and structure. G. Tulchinsky enumerates them as follows [Tulchinsky, 2010, pp. 86-87]:
1) Informative speech. This is one of the widespread kinds of public communication which aims at providing the audience with some new information in a clear and straightforward way, making sure the main point of it are understood and memorized. Lectures and reports are the most common forms of this presentation type. The speaker's statements are to be supported with the facts and statistics data. G. Hamilton also claims there are a few more sub-types within this category which serve to specific purpose and may be combined as elements of one big
speech [Hamilton, 1987, pp. 300-306]. Those are: a) definition speech b) description speech. 2) Persuasive speech. Unlike the previous type, the priority is to produce certain impact on the audience which outcome may be the change of views on specific problems, certain emotional feedback or actions. The emotional background, culture of the audience are of high importance. According to the objectives, persuasive speeches may be divided into two major categories: a) speeches designed to influence thinking – an attempt to convince listeners to share speaker's view on specific matter. b) speeches for motivation – an attempt to not just persuade the audience and change their mind on an issue, but also to urge them to do something [Hofstede, 1991, pp. 319-325]. 3) Special speech. It is given on specific occasion, characterized by a relatively short length, emotional message reflecting individual traits of speaker's style. Such speech should not contain any ambiguous or questionable statements but in some cases should be aimed at evoking a certain reaction, emotional respond.
Notwithstanding what the character, the type of the presentation is, there are common principles and logic, order of speaker's actions. It includes the following stages: preparation, research, speech making and, eventually, speech production. The first three represent the constituents of the speech planning process while the last refers to the presentation being an outcome of all the preceding work.
Preparation suggests that the speaker (or, in some cases, the speechwriter, as Tulchinsky notices [Tulchinsky, p. 90]) defines the topic, main purposes of an upcoming speech and asks himself (herself) what outcome it should produce (listeners` response and feedback). He or she also takes into consideration the context of presentation so as to adjust the speech to it, enhance the efficiency, clearness of a message [Hamilton, 1987, p. 64-81].
The specific stage of preparation is performed if a speaker delegates the making of a speech to a professional, which is a normal practice in business domain. These may be sense of humor, improvisation skill, previous speech-giving experience, voice characteristics, sayings and words that are frequently used by a speaker or appeal to him/her.
The common preparation stage is of critical importance which often defines the structure and the content of speech as well as the way it is given, is the audience analysis. If there is such a possibility, a speaker may undertake a formal analysis of the audience: the surveys, interviews with several people who are going to listen to the speech, can help to cast the light on some of their personal features or ideas, attitude towards the topic of the future presentation as they can contain specific questions [Beebe, 2006, pp. 79-80]. The informal analysis of the audience, unlike the previous one, implies that may consist in observation: a speaker (or a speechwriter) gathers information about their organization via the Internet or with the help of people who are its present or former employees, partners, etc., in order to become aware of their experience, activity, priorities and area of interests. Subsequently, all that data will help to predict which points are worth mentioned in front of the audience and which are to be omitted or modified.
The combination of both the aforementioned analysis forms build a multi-component study which covers most peculiarities of the meant listeners. These are:
- Social and ethnic features. In this group we include age, sex, professional domain, nationality, culture, political and religious peculiarities etc. The greater importance may be attached to some specific points of the list, depending on other constituents of the context. Nationality, cultural and religious features may be far more important in a multinational company whereas the audience in other organizations is more or less homogeneous in terms of those, therefore, the speaker focuses on the rest of points. E.g., when a speech producer deals with an international audience or an audience representing various professional groups, there may be the need to bring awareness about certain notions and phenomena, either cultural or professional, if they are of most importance for the general comprehension of a speech.
•Psychological features. These reflect the audience's emotional state and perception of a speaker before the speech is given, attitude towards the topic of presentation. The interest level may be different depending on whether listeners are voluntary or captive, their previous experience and awareness of the topic, as well as their personal beliefs and expectations.
•Situational features. There are three basic criteria in this group.
The first is the size of audience: it can vary significantly, depending mainly on facility parameters. This feature determine whether a speaker chooses a more formal or informal language style, the extent to which interaction with the listeners may go (directness), volume and intensity of speech (whether the voice is amplified or not). The second criteria is location: the environment in a speech facility, including physical conditions (temperature, air conditioning acoustics, light), distance between listeners and a speaker, equipment and visual aids placement etc. All these characteristics may affect the audience's perception and comprehension, attention span.
The third is occasion: knowing the audience's reason of attending the presentation helps a speaker to be in line with their expectation and single out inappropriate or unimportant content. The outcome of the careful audience study provides with all the necessary information about this criteria [Beebe, pp. 84-91] .
As an audience analysis is completed, a speaker uses its data to specify and adjust his speech goals unless the initial ones fully correspond to the pronounced listeners` expectations. The following step to take is to conduct a research in an area of knowledge which correspond to the formulated topic. During this a speaker selects the most relevant points which should be mentioned and arrange them in a convenient and logical way in order to make it as explicit and understandable to an audience as possible. The research process may consist of various stages but the common structure normally includes the following:
Consideration of the history, evolution and previous studies of the phenomenon, issue being a central subject of a speech / presentation. A speaker should be familiar with different approaches towards studying such topic, revelation of their similarities and differences, advantages and drawbacks. By doing this he or she may reveal the missing or insufficiently covered points, the room for further research and methodimprovement.
Estimation of the issue relevance and practical value.
Detection of the contradiction between newly discovered facts and phenomena and those discovered and described by a speaker`s precursors.
Comparing of the researched issue with its counterparts in other areas of knowledge and discovery of the possible matches, common features [Beebe 2006, p. 91].As long as the strategy of research is established, a speaker initiates the sources selection (books, broсhures, audio- and video materials etc., found in the online databases, websites, libraries etc.), interviews with people who can provide them with facts and their experience about an issue, and undertakes its` thorough study. Various researchers notice that it is necessary to rely on several criteria while selecting the appropriate sources for academic or professional presentation. These are the main points to use: Recency (novelty). Depending on the domain, the knowledge base may be modified and completed faster or slowly. Credibility. This criteria refers to the quality of information from specific source. Clearness and comprehensiveness. The first characteristic implies the analysis of a future speech text to reveal inaccuracies which may negatively impact the general perception and understanding of it by listeners. Thus, the speaker's duty is to adapt the speech to the audience by analyzing a
wide range of sources, especially those which investigate into a narrow area of knowledge yet explain the information with simplicity and in a quite concise form for their audience is wide and unaware of most specifications. The last point of a presentation is - References and links. One of the criteria of a credible source of information is an extensive bibliography / references list. The variety of relevant literature used by an author is often an evidence of a thorough study of the subject and consideration of different views
Method
Given that we have already reviewed the common steps of presentation planning process and considered most factors which a student guided by while selecting the content and the way of giving certain pieces of information to an audience, we should henceforth look deeper into the subject of using appropriate strategies and tactics as the tools to enhance general presentation quality and raise the chance of a desirable effect being produced upon listeners.
Before we begin to classify the strategies, it is to mention that notwithstanding specific strategies use, there are common principles of structuring the speech. We, as teachers, should give students the main idea of any public speech [Maley, A.2018 ]. Normally, while preparing, a speaker follows the logic “introduction – main body – conclusion”. Introduction is designed to present the topic, provides the audience with an outline of upcoming main body speech, raise their interest and capture attention. Main body represents essential information about the topic, normally containing three or four essential points (ideas) which are intended in an introduction. The information referring to one point is organized into one major section. Therefore, there can be three or four large passages within the body, with logical connections inside each of them as well as between them. Conclusion represents a summary of a main body. Besides structure, there are common principles of making a speech which refer to the simplicity, credibility of information, relevance etc. In fact, they can and should be applied towards any kind of written text or oral speech produced to inform or persuade. There are four delivery methods used to give a speech [6, p. 186]:
1) Reading 2) Memorization 3) Extemporaneous speech (there is careful planning with strategies selected ahead of time but there isn't memorization. Instead, a speaker focuses on key ideas, works out argumentation items for each of them, makes notes containing facts and statistics, formulates main question of a presentation). 4)
Impromptu speech: represents delivery without any preparation at all, with neither notes, nor memorization. This is why the strategies are selected during the speech. There is no plan provided and no supporting materials are used which is likely to affect the structure and logic of presentation negatively.
Our next step is to review which strategies can be applied in different presentation types. We will make strategies for informative and persuasive speeches our priority since most formal business presentations aim at bringing awareness or persuasion [Vetrinskaya 2013]. However, we will mention certain aspects of strategies usage during presentations for specific occasion, namely those which represent peculiar interest from viewpoint of rhetoric and can be appropriate for the other two types of speeches.
According to S. Beebe, there are two large groups of informative strategies: A. Strategies to enhance understanding; B. Strategies to maintain audience's interest [Beebe, 2006, pp. 296-303].
A. Strategies to enhance understanding.
1) Analogies. As informative presentations often introduce topics which are quite difficult to grasp, a speaker can help listeners grasp a complex notion by using comparison of two items. For instance, while describing a big and successful enterprise, a speaker may state that it has an impressive customer base so as to impress an audience.
2) Vivid description. As a description is normally larger than a definition, it provides more details about a phenomenon, answering such questions as “why”, “where”, “how”, “when” etc. One of the most particular types of a vivid description is a word picture – an explanation appealing to the senses, when a speaker attempts to describe what the listeners would feel if they touched object, what taste it would have, what sound they would hear it produce etc.
3) Avoiding persuasion. During speech preparation and delivery a speaker should give him\herself a full account of informative and persuasive speeches differing nature. While giving an informative speech, it is important to be accurate with the form of main statements so as not to impose a specific viewpoint to the listeners and not lead to confusion [Hamilton, 1987, p. 308].
4) Highlighting common points. An effective method to simplify perception and memorization of the most important points of speech is to draw attention to the features which phenomena share, establish a bond, or, on the contrary, indicate a clear contrast.
B. Strategies to maintain audience`s interest.
1) Rhetorical question. This approach renders them more interested in what will be said next.
2) Story-telling. A story incorporated in a speech may raise the interest and motivation effectively if it is linked directly with a topic of presentation and the narration style is appropriate (it can be humorous or dramatic, pompous and official or simple and rather informative).
3) Audience-centered strategy. To be exact, this is an approach which may include different elements designed to establish a bond between a speaker and listeners, show in a more explicit way that the message is targeting that very audience [Hamilton, 1987, p. 309]. Such an effect may be produced by the usage of specific words. E.g., a speaker may use the pronoun “we” on purpose, instead of third person pronouns and such nouns as “staff, people, company etc” in order to express the idea of unity, common problem”.
Strategies for persuasive presentations.
The art of persuasion is the central object of rhetoric. The essential means serving to change people's way of thinking by appealing to their logic, influence their behavior through emotional statements were elaborated by ancient philosophers and rhetoricians:
1) Ethos is the first mean referring to the credibility of a speaker and what he says. The essence of this idea is that there is the direct connection between the image of a speaker and his authority as of a person worth trusting: audience is more likely to believe a person believed to be ethical, honest, sensible etc. The key aspects which shape credibility are as follows:1) competence is a set of relevant, well-developed skills and broad knowledge which a speaker possess and demonstrates while giving presentation; 2) trustworthiness is the image of an honest, reliable person; 3) dynamism reflects the quality of delivery, energy applied (charisma is believed to be a form of this aspect).
2) Logos refers to the efficient reasoning and argumentation produced by a speaker. To persuade an audience, logical statements are supported with facts and evidence so as to prevent hesitation, objections etc. and raise speaker's confidence.
3) Unlike logos, pathos deals with beliefs, emotions rather than logic. It suggests affecting listeners by introducing stories, humor, moral dilemmas etc., since individuals are often guided by internal forces other than strict and objective thinking [Communication in the real world, 2016, p. 528-530].
All the three above-mentioned means of persuasion constitute together the effective tool for speaker to achieve presentation goals. However, scientists notice that one or the other constituent may contribute to the persuasion far more greatly than other two. Based upon such statement, the theory named the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) is formulated [Beebe, 2006, p. 317]. According to this, different listeners perceive message in different
ways depending on personal features and topic of a speech: while some of them are persuaded because of their critical evaluation of content (arguments, evidence), the others rely on the overall impression and feelings (sounds, colors, speaker's appearance). Those two ways of persuasion suggested in the framework of the ELM theory are defined as direct and indirect persuasion routes respectively, and it is apparent that the first reflects the greater impact of logos upon the listeners whereas the second implies the significance of ethos and pathos.
In order to better understand the functioning of three persuasion means we should review strategies serving to impact whether logic or emotions, i.e. via logos or ethos/pathos. As there was already stated, the impact upon logic is carried out with reasoning and corresponding evidence. The reasoning may differ reflecting speaker's way of thinking and the context, goals of presentation. Generally, there is a great distinction between inductive and deductive reasoning [Hamilton,1987, pp.334-338].
Being a polar logical scheme, inductive reasoning implies usage of examples, description of specific phenomena which are followed by a general statement, conclusion. For instance, the presentation designed to bring awareness and belief that goods of a company are below standards and not worth buying, a speaker may introduce the problem by describing precise cases of product malfunctioning and subsequently claim that they are unreliable. Besides, the particular case of an inductive method is analogy – connection of several items through description of their common characteristics (The changes to the tax policy in country A have resulted in faster development of new businesses. Thus, the implementation of the same policy patterns in country B would also produce a positive effect).
On the contrary, deductive reasoning suggests that general information comes first and is supported with specific conclusion S. Beebe points out that one of the typical examples of deductive method is syllogism – a three-step logical process which includes general statement, particular statement and conclusion. The third type of reasoning is known as causal. It consists in the establishment of “cause”- “consequence” relationship between two or more items. The first model for this reasoning type application suggests that well-known facts cause the predictable results: “war is destructive, so it is a factor of an economy collapse”; “a large scale advertising campaign” brings a global awareness about a product, so it results in the growth of sales” etc.
The different types of reasoning need some precise information for support, therefore, they should be enhanced with evidence introduced [Beebe, 2006, pp.347-348]. The widely used evidence may represent: facts, examples, opinions.
Apart from ethos, pathos and logos, some researchers reveal the group of psychologically based strategies. Those are cognitive dissonance, motivation and appeals to needs which are quite close to pathos by the effect they can produce [Communication in the real world, 2016,. pp.531-534].
Cognitive dissonance is a technique which creates contradiction inside listener's mind, opposing mental discomfort from new information with long-term beliefs, ideas etc. The inconsistency motivates audience to restore a balance. Such approach is often used for anti-smoking social advertisement campaigns (the “smoking kills” contradicts the smokers` habit and psychological need to smoke). Moreover, cognitive dissonance may also be applied as a strategy of discredit, exception etc. [Malyuga Tomalin 2017]
Finally, the appeal to listeners` needs continues the same direction as motivation, tapping the essential constituents of human existence, satisfaction etc. The Maslow`s hierarchy of needs differentiates several categories structured like a pyramid: the bottom is physiological needs, then safety, social, esteem needs and self-actualization needs being the top of hierarchy. The idea is that bottom needs are to be taken into account first: listeners are hardly capable of perceiving message properly unless they are satisfied with air conditioning, temperature, comfortable seats etc. But once the basic requirements are met, a speaker may elaborate more subtle strategy by combining, e.g., appeal to safety needs and negative motivation (appeal to fear), appeal to self-esteem
need and positive motivation (a financial planner may persuade by inviting a receiver to imagine prosperity that will result from accepting his or her message).
However, this is to stress that the above-mentioned methods, whether they impact logic or emotions, are to be used carefully without violating any ethical, social norms. Otherwise, overuse of certain methods (e.g., appeal to fear) may cause the audience's negative reaction, mistrust and hostility towards him\her or, at least, an issue under discussion.
We have conducted the study of essential presentation methods designed to achieve speaker's goals in a more effective way. First, we revealed features typical of any presentation, then, discriminated several delivery methods. Furthermore, we have considered strategies which are used whether to inform or to persuade, depending on the presentation type and its topic. We have classified them into two large corresponding groups: 1) strategies aimed at clarification of information 2) strategies designed to influence audience's perception and opinion through logic or emotions.
Results And Discussion
The study of the theoretical materials done in terms of the presentation preparations allows us to come up to practical part of the research. We, now consider our experience of practical application of the theoretical basis of the issue.
In classes, we apply the Ian MacKenzie’s English for Business Studies Student’s Book to exercise and train all the communicative skills of students to enable them in the future to work and successfully act in business spheres. In terms of presentation, we effectively take into consideration the Appendix 1: How to give a good presentation. A checklist represents contain of absolutely well structured definition of what a good presentation is. It says that a good presentation is a well planned with a clear, logical structure, clear links between parts, relevant information and memorable introduction and finish.
Then, it informs about the steps the speaker should undertake in preparation stage and during the presentation. When planning, the speaker should think thoroughly: What is the purpose of the presentation – to inform, to persuade, to review? How will the information be structured? Who is the target audience? How can visual aids help the audience understand what is being said?
We also pay a great attention on the giving a presentation as such. 70 % of students being initially very shy speaking in front of a group should overcome that and speak loudly enough to be heard by everybody, do not read a prepared text, but improvise from their notes or visual aids, pause for emphasis when necessary, look relaxed and confident, seem competent and enthusiastic. What is more difficult for 80% of students, it is making and maintaining eye contact with the classmates and using an appropriate body language and gestures to convey meaning. We can easily explain this lack of confidence of the students with the traditional didactic of teaching in schools. Thus, 90 % of Russian learners are very traditional in many things they do and especially in teaching and learning. The most teachers tend to behave quite formally. Moreover they are often under significant pressure, knowing that the parents will treat their learner’s results as the tutor’s professional failure or success. Consequently, they tend to trust traditional textbooks, teaching methods, aimed at equipping the learners of traditional skills: such as reading, listening, writing and speaking. Giving a presentation – in this list – almost lacks. In the contrary, we- as university teachers - are aimed to equip the future specialists with all required skills to be successful in communication and acting with business partners[Malyuga 2015].
What is more, learners are not used to represent their presentations following the clear structure. We should focus them on the accurate and clear structure. The aforementioned textbook’s appendix represents the following structure of a good presentation: introduction, main part, ending and answering questions.
The introduction should contain: - a welcome to the audience, thank you to the audience, speaker’s name and position, the subject or title of the presentation, a statement of the purpose of the presentation , (perhaps) a statement of the length of time it will take. We are giving the students some clichés, they can use, for example: Thank you all for coming today. The subject of my talk is… The theme of my presentation today is…/… because this is something we all have to think about/ … because you will be responsible for carrying out these new procedures/My presentation will take about 20 minutes. The introduction also contains an outline of the structure of the presentation: My presentation will be in four parts. I’ve divided my talk into three parts. First… Second… Third … Finally. Perhaps it contains a statement of when the audience may ask questions: Please feel free to ask questions at any time. I’d appreciate it if you would save any questions until the end.
The main part of a presentation is the most difficult. The students have to understand that the main part they give the audience the information they have come to hear. But, the students very often just start with the main part, ignoring the structure, and not saying about what points does a presentation consist of. Consequently, it causes difficulties by listeners and destroys understanding. They should clearly signal the beginning and end of each of the parts as they occur. That completes the first part, so we come to…/ So, to move on to the second part of my talk …/ That concludes the second part, so let’s move on to …/ That’s all I want to say about … so unless you have any questions let’s turn to …
The ending should include a clear signal that they have finished or are about to finish the last point. That ends the third part of my talk./ That’s all I’m going to say about … It should briefly summarize the main information and include invitation to ask questions. So, to sum up …/ I’ll end by emphasizing the main points./ So now I’ll just summarize my three main points again./… and now I’d like to invite your comments./ Now I’d be interested to hear your comments./ Right, does anyone have any questions or comments? Now we have 15 minutes for
discussion.
Perhaps the ending should draw some logical conclusions from what has been said So what we need to do now is …/ This shows that we have to … So, to conclude, I have two recommendations. Perhaps, it includes a thanks for listening. Thank you for your attention. Thanks for listening.
About 60 % of the students often lack the skills to organize an effective ending of a presentation because of a failure of a clear logic and structure. And they stop talking without emphasizing on that. That is why the entire presentation given lacks and suffers.
The very difficult part of a presentation, as the experience clearly demonstrates, is answering questions. The students just often think: I explained everything perfectly, so why are they asking questions. In most cases, the presenters attempt avoiding invitation of asking questions, having fear in front of them. That’s because they are scared of not enough competence in the field and having fear of ‘loosing face”.
We, in turns, have to learn them to welcome questions and listen carefully and look at the questioner, not interrupt the speaker, clarify the exact meaning of the question if they are not sure, take time to think, be polite, and check that their questioner is satisfied with their answer. We should provide the students with the appropriate clichés and expressions for these cases. Sorry, I didn’t catch that. Could you repeat that, please? Sorry, I’m not sure if I’ve understood exactly …/ If I’ve understood you correctly, you want to know … Is that right?/ Does that answer your question?
We also should train the expressions for the cases when it is impossible to answer a questions. I’m afraid that doesn’t really relate to my talk. Perhaps you could discuss that with … I’m afraid I’m not in a position to comment on that. I’m not the right person to ask about that. Perhaps – could help? / I’m afraid I don’t have that information with me, but I will try and find out, and get back to you. That’s a difficult question to answer in a few words. Could we talk about that later?
It should be noted, that sometimes it is very difficult to get the students keeping politeness at this stage of a presentation because of the known directness of Russian culture and, therefore, utterances. Very often, shyness is hiding against aggressiveness and rudeness when giving a presentation and – especially – answering the audience questions. A good presenter who has to talk to an international audience will research the style of presentation that is appropriate to that particular audience. And the most important thing to explain the students is that they should think about the audience and help people understand the information using all the tools, visual aids and equipment. All these should be carefully prepared in advance and checked before the presentation.
We have carefully considered the common requirements to a good presentation. Now, we are going to come up to some separate examples of preparing a particular type of presentations. Initially, we have classified the presentations into two big groups: informative speech and persuasive ones.
To illustrate the training of the informative presentation let us consider the task in the Unit 3 Company structure of the EBS. The learners should write notes for a short presentation on their company or a company they would like to work for. They should mention: 1. what it does: it designs, makes/ provides/distributes/ sells/offers/organizes/invests in etc. 2. where it is located: it has offices/ branches/ subsidiaries/ factories/ stores, etc. in … 3. How it is structured and whether this a reason for its success: it consists of/ includes/ is divided into/ is organized in, etc. 4. why you want to work for this company. Then, they should give a short presentation to the class. This 3-5 minutes presentation could either be prepared in class or at home. The students should be restricted to the points mentioned. The teacher should give learners all the information - How to organize, structure and maintain audience attention.
As an example of a training a persuasive presentation, we can provide the task given in Unit 22 Government and taxation of the EBS. The task is Taxation and government spending. It contains a preparing a brief talk (or a written report) giving arguments both in defence of and against taxation and government spending, but preferably with a conclusion coming down on one side or the other. The learners can use their own opinions as well as those expressed in this unit. This could be prepared in pairs or in small groups. Even learners without opinions of their own should be able to construct a short talk or written report from the material in this unit. Given that there are arguments on both sides, this would be an opportunity to use various connectors and conjunctions such as: e.g. /for example, for instance, therefore, consequently, as a result, due to, similarly, owing to + (noun phrase), in order to, though, however, while, what’s more, on the other hand, i.e. (that is), so as to, although, yet, whereas, furthermore, on the contrary, in other words, even though, nevertheless, nonetheless, moreover, in addition,
alternatively.
To practice better the presentation skills it is offered another task of presentation in Unit 27 International trade. This presentation could be prepared as well as the one in Unit 22. The task is almost the same: prepare a brief talk (or a written report) summarizing either the arguments in favour of free trade, or those against. The learners can use their own opinions and examples as well as those expressed in this unit. Unlike the presentation in Unit 22, which asked learners to consider arguments on both sides of a question, the objective here is to prepare a forceful but one-sided argument.
Another good example of practicing a persuasive presentation is provided in The Business 2.0 Upper intermediate student’s book Unit 3 Quality. Students should simulate that they are committee members of their company’s sports and social club. They have a limited budget of money to spend on one of the products given in the pictures. The students have to work in three groups to prepare a short presentation of their product to persuade the committee to buy it. They should use the presentation outline to help them, and prepare one or two slides to illustrate their talk. Then they have to take turns to present their product. After each talk, they should give feedback on clarity and impact using the table. The table contains the criteria to estimate: pauses, sentence length, signposting, speed,
collocations, explanation of jargon, clarity, impact. The criteria of the delivered presentation should be estimated according to a four ranking scale, where 1= poor,2= acceptable, 3=good and 4=excellent. Students read introductory situation, and translate the budget into their own currencies. If we have a large group we should provide additional visuals. Then we divide the students into groups with one picture each, referring them to the presentation outline notes. They can add any imaginary information – factual and realistic. After the time of the preparation will have finished they should select the group speaker to deliver the presentation in front of the class. The teacher should encourage the group members to be critical when estimating the presentation. After training and practicing the presentation delivery 80 % of students have improved their communicative skills and competence.
Conclusions
The study had been done on the theory of a good presentation, has provided us with detailed information concerning presentation speech. We have considered its definition and the main peculiarities. The classification of speech types has allowed us to draw connections between presentation goals and its format as well as content. Relying on it and other determining factors, we have studied the stages of speech preparation and criteria for its organization. We have undertaken the overview of main methods aimed at raising presentation speech efficiency. Positive and negative motivation serves to convict audience that listening to a speech (or following speaker's advice) or failing to do so will lead to positive or negative results correspondingly. Thus, a positive motivation suggests certain “reward” (“the awareness of those tendencies will boost your chances for choosing an effective long-term strategy) or “punishment” (the ignorance of those principles may lead to dire consequences). The growing discomfort encourages audience to focus on the message and be less resilient. This can be essential when listeners are initially against the presenter or the topic of speech or rather neutral and need solid evidence, reasoning and appeal to emotions to change their minds.
We have conducted the study of essential presentation methods designed to achieve speaker's goals in a more effective way. First, we revealed the features typical of any presentation, then, discriminated several delivery methods. Furthermore, we have considered strategies which are used whether to inform or to persuade, depending on the presentation type and its topic. We have classified them into two large corresponding groups: 1) strategies aimed at clarification of information 2) strategies designed to influence audience's perception and opinion through logic or emotions.
Given, that we have reviewed the common steps of presentation planning process and considered most factors which a speech writer is guided by while selecting the content and the way of giving certain pieces of information to an audience, we have also looked deeper into the subject of using appropriate strategies and tactics as the tools to enhance general presentation quality and raise the chance of a desirable effect being produced upon listeners. The study conducted, enables us to effectively create the methods of teaching business presentation. In the article, we have analysed the ways and the means of teaching business presentations in classes with the bachelors and master students at RUDN University, Faculty of economics. Using the methods of pedagogical modeling in the first place, and before-mentioned others, we have considered the process of developing communicative competence when training business presentations. Thus, about 80 % of students, initially, having lack of business presentations experience, have improved their competence significantly. In the article, we have considered the practical tasks and exercises which have been aimed at achieving the major goal - in particular - developing communicative competence by means of business presentation teaching.
Acknowledgments
The publication was financially supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation (the Agreement number 02.a03.008).
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